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National security is no longer just the business of war

Thank God Bhagwat is no longer the buzzword, at least for the time being. He may in all probability be recalled in the run-up to the election because it has become an emotive issue. And the admiral will no doubt permit the use of his name by the opposition Congress to fault the caretaker government on its slipshod defence policy and thoughtless national security charter.

On its part, the government is blaming the Opposition for blocking its defence and foreign policy initiatives and achievements. The first anniversary of the Pokhran II tests should have been a cause for celebration but for the hiatus resulting from the fall of the government and the uncertainty generated on the future of many security projects.

Despite these political convulsions, intellectuals and security experts, and to a lesser extent, the media are excited about the new perspective and outlook on national security, which is coming about as a result of the nuclear and missile tests and other national security-related issues. Some are even calling it a mini awakening on national security just as in a national security awakening.

This transformation is happening more by default than intent. After fumbling on the periphery of the national security circuit, at last the country seems to be on the threshold of a national security awakening. The breakthrough has occurred due to India crossing the nuclear Rubicon and continuing with its missile programme.

The perceptible change in the national security outlook has to be seen against this modern definition of defence and national security: "While defence is policy, national security is an attitude. Defence is precise, national security is diffuse. Defence is a condition, national security is a feeling." But national security is no longer just the business of war but also its economic and other strands of stability and security affecting the gross national happiness of the country. So national security is both an attitude and a feeling. If awakening is shedding indifference or ignorance and becoming aware and reanimated, this rousing was triggered off by the nuclear tests and other events culminating in the emotive Bhagwat debate.

Three years ago, while releasing the book Defence Reporting in India, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee admitted he knew very little about defence. Today the same Vajpayee is as eloquent on his 51 poems as he is on No First Use and Minimum Nuclear Deterrent. Who would have imagined H D Deve Gowda holding forth on the hidden armour and agenda behind the T-90 tank? Or Shivraj Patil's splendid paper -- Defence planning in an era of strategic uncertainty -- presented early this year at the first-ever Asian security seminar? Or J Jayalalitha taking classes on national security from United Services Institute, Delhi. But it was the MoD that took the cake by doling out its first-ever white paper, even if it was on Bhagwat.

While trading charges, both Bhagwat and Fernandes have brought defence and security issues in full public gaze. The parliamentary debate revealed the nascent talent of its members and their belated interest in the military. Whatever the motivation, the wisdom received by the public on defence in the last four months is greater than in all the years after Independence. Ram Singh now knows about the Navy Act, the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet and chiefs of the Staff Committee. To his knowledge of Purulia is added gunrunning details of Operation Leech.

It is only in time of war that public awareness gets rekindled and that too in a limited geographical space. In 1962, except in Lower Assam, there was hardly any impact of the Himalaya debacle. It was only in 1971 that the war had a broad spread. The Indian Peace Keeping Force went to Sri Lanka without any unified support. Historically there is no truly defence or national security establishment in the country.

Some experts argue that the reason for this is the absence of any strategic culture -- the thought or the sense for it. The country has not properly recorded military history, has no institutionalised security structures and therefore, no effective politico-military establishment to provide higher direction for conflict management.

And yet, since Independence, India has fought 32 military operations including peacekeeping missions. It incorporated Junagarh, Hyderabad, Goa, Sikkim and fought four major wars. Ironically, the land of Mahatma Gandhi is a witness to more wars and skirmishes than any other part of the globe including Israel in the last half century. Surely India must posses some strategic culture and sense for security? The nuclear tests, including its secrecy, was an organisational triumph and could not have been achieved without strategic sense.

As a state with nuclear weapons as opposed to a nuclear weapons state it has to carry the burden to this new strategic responsibility. Already a regional power, it has gate-crashed into the big power league. The security awakening during the last 12 months has been flagged by momentous events; exercising nuclear option kept open since 1974, establishing a National Security Council, planning for a strategic defence review and defence reforms and the dismissal of the chief of the naval staff. An Indian nuclear doctrine will be ready next month.

Intense debates have been held over each of these issues. Never before has there been free and frank discussions on nuclear theology, strategic reappraisal, military reforms and civil military relations. It is surprising that for this awakening, the nation had to revisit Pokhran and sack a naval chief. After all, the dominant discourse in South Asia after the end of colonial rule has been over political and military security.

India is engaged in strategic dialogue with all nuclear powers except China, with whom tactical talks will resume soon. India has reappeared on the radar of the economic superpowers, Japan and Germany. Today people have become as familiar with CTBT and DCNS as they are with ISBT and MTNL.

India must not let this chance of correcting its security compass and attitude slip away. The Bhagwat debate has opened a Pandora's box on defence and security issues, the nation's holy cow. Not only has it changed people's outlook, but may even have changed their mindset. National consensus and political unity are essential in nurturing and sustaining national security consciousness.

General Ashok K Mehta